The Royal Collections Trust is advertising for a skilled horologist to look
after more than 1,000 clocks belonging to the Queen, nearly half of them at
Buckingham Palace

More than most, the Queen needs to know the right time. Royal engagements lose much of their symbolism and grandeur if they do not run like clockwork. Not for her the national sport of “running a bit late”.

That is why one of the job ads currently on the royal website is so significant. The Royal Collections Trust are looking for a skilled horologist (clockmaker)to be one of three who look after the timepieces in all of the Queen’s residences.

The role involves maintaining, repairing and winding up more than 1,000 clocks, nearly half of them at Buckingham Palace. Beyond that, work is needed on “a range of horological items and turret clocks” – the latter being the dreaded big beasts of the repairer’s trade, housed in cold and damp casings, devilishly difficult to reach.

The job description is daunting: “You will be confident and experienced at working with hand and machine tools, with particular ability to strip and clean mechanisms, make new parts, solder, turn, cut screws, wheels and pinions, make hands, silver dials, pattern making, brazing and some forging.”

The qualification needed is a BHI final grade standard, awarded by the British Horological Institute, the professional association for the trade. This narrows the field. The Institute, based in Newark, Notts., has only 2,400 members, and the majority are enthusiasts and collectors rather than professionals.

This year, just 86 people achieved the required grade. Most will have sought jobs with the dwindling number of clock and watch manufacturers in Britain before trying to establish themselves as freelance repairers. When the Institute was formed in 1858, there were about 100,000 people in the business, most based in small workshops in areas such as Clerkenwell and Coventry. Over the years they were decimated by competition from Switzerland and the United States, and more recently from the Far East.

Yet Alan Midleton (NB: Midleton is correct), the Institute’s curator and librarian, resists the suggestion that it is a dying art. “It has its ups and downs,” he concedes. “But at the moment numbers are on the increase.” He adds that the salary being offered by the Queen, £31,200 a year, is a lot more than he could have commanded when he started in the business 40 years ago, even taking inflation into account.

Ever since mechanical clocks were invented in the Middle Ages, monarchs have recognised their important role in maintaining control of their kingdoms. In 1370, Charles V of France ordered that every clock in the country should be synchronised with the one in his palace: a decree that could not be implemented because, until the pendulum was invented in 1621, clocks were erratic, often losing or gaining more than quarter of an hour a day.

Queen Elizabeth I is reputed to have worn a tiny watch as a ring, incorporating an alarm that would scratch her finger to remind her of engagements. And George III enjoyed taking watches apart and reassembling them.

The royal horological collection is one of the finest in the world, embracing priceless antique musical, astronomical and mechanical clocks. All the great makers of the past are represented, among them Thomas Tompion, Abraham Breguet, inventor of the carriage clock, and Daniel Quare, who turned down the position of clockmaker to George I because he was a Quaker and felt unable to take the oath of allegiance to the crown.

As a child, one of my favourite books was “The 13 Clocks”, by the American humorist James Thurber. It begins “Once upon a time, in a gloomy castle on a lonely hill, where there were 13 clocks that wouldn’t go, there lived a cold, aggressive Duke and his niece, the Princess Salamanda.” The plot is complicated, but in the end the Princess makes the clocks work by passing her warm hand in front of them.

The skills demanded by the Queen are rather more exacting. Applications close on October 13 – a significant date because, assuming the appointment is made speedily, the successful candidate will have just a few days to prepare for one of the two busiest weekends of the year. The clocks go back on October 27, and it customarily takes some 50 hours for the royal horological team to make the necessary adjustments to all the timepieces in the collection.

So be sure to get your CV to the Palace on time. As the Canadian poet Robert Service noted: “The clock is always slow; it is later than you think.”